Fedora Users — loss of battery power results in unusable system

My laptop ran out of battery power about half an hour ago, without me noticing it. Does FC3 contain tools to monitor battery status? I don't quite remember what the computer did when it shut down, but now it is rather unusable. After plugging it into a socket and rebooting it, the icons for my home directory, the rubbish bin, and the computer have disappeared from the desktop, and several of the 'applications' and 'actions' menu items don't respond any more. In particular, the 'file browser' does not open, and clicking onto 'log out' only results in a response after several minutes. I do get the impression that this operating system is not the most stable....

Any ideas, or do I go back and reinstall the whole damn thing, followed by downloading all the updates?

And, since I already write, does anyone have an idea why the 'CD Player' program seems to play my CDs, but no sound is audible? Other sounds did work, I could also rip the tracks and play the resulting files and hear them.

Best wishes,

Gerhard